Henry Wheaton - Reference

US statesman and maritime jurist, born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He studied at Rhode Island College, edited the National Advocate in New York City (1812–15), where for four years he was a justice of the Marine Court, and became a reporter for the Supreme Court (1816–27). He was chargé d'affaires at Copenhagen (1827–35), and minister at Berlin (1835–46). His major work, Elements of International Law, was first published in 1836 and became a standard work.

Henry Wheaton (November 27, 1785 - March 11, 1848), American lawyer and diplomat, was born at Providence, Rhode Island.

He graduated from Brown University in 1802, was admitted to the bar in 1805, and, after two years’ study abroad, practiced law at Providence (1807-1812) and at New York City (1812-1827). Wheaton's successor Richard Peters (supreme court) condensed his work, and Wheaton sued him, claiming infringement of his common-law copyright.

In 1825, he aided in the revision of the laws of New York.

During this period he had published a Digest of the Law of Maritime Captures (1815); Elements of International Law (1836), his most important work, of which a 6th edition with memoir was prepared by WB Lawrence and an eighth by RH Dana; Histoire du Progrès du Droit des Gens en Europe, written in 1838 for a prize offered by the French Academy of Moral and Political Science, and translated in 1845 by William B Lawrence as A History of the Law of Nations in Europe and America; Wheaton’s general theory is that international law consists of "those rules of conduct which reason deduces, as consonant to justice, from the nature of ‘the society existing among independent nations, with such definitions and modifications as may be established by general Consent."

In 1846 Wheaton was requested to resign by the new president, Polk, who needed his place for another appointment. He was called at once to the Harvard Law School as lecturer on international law;

Reference

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Preceded by: William Cranch

Supreme Court of the United States Reporter of Decisions 1816 – 1827

Succeeded by: Richard Peters